Folding in the Cheese--February 3, 2022

Folding in the Cheese--February 3, 2022

"But someone will say, 'You have faith and I have works.' Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well.  Even the demons believe--and shudder." [James 2:18-19]

It took the great comedic actors Catherine O'Hara and Dan Levy to help me understand this passage in a whole new way.  And now I can't stop smiling when I read James' words.

In a hilarious scene from their recent classic sitcom Schitt's Creek, the two are mother and son, attempting to cook queso sauce for enchiladas.  Moira, played by O'Hara, insists she has her mother's famous recipe in hand and that she has made these enchiladas for her family before, and is reciting the directions to teach her son, David, played by Levy.  There, standing over the simmering pot, David asks for the next step in this recipe, and Moira responds enigmatically, "Fold in the cheese."

David doesn't know what that term means, and so he asks back, "What does it mean to fold in the cheese?  I don't understand that."  Fair enough--he's supposed to be the learner here.  But Moira clearly doesn't know, either, even though she has told everyone that she's made this before and that it was her family recipe.  She just keeps barking back at him, "You fold in the cheese, David!  You just 'FOLD IT IN'!"  Tempers flare and voices get louder, because Moira can do nothing more than just reciting words she doesn't understand, and David can't figure out what he's supposed to do. Moira acts as if the words themselves should be self-explanatory, and that there is no possible way she could make herself any clearer, but she obviously doesn't know what they mean, either.  (Just for the record, in case this bit of culinary terminology is new to you as well, "folding" is a technique for incorporating an ingredient into a mixture, like mixing egg whites into a souffle so that the air bubbles are preserved while you mix, or in this case adding cheese to a sauce so that it distributes evenly without scorching at the bottom.) Just having the words printed on the page in a recipe cannot create enchiladas--without the knowledge of what the words mean and the actual addition of cheese to the sauce, they are just scribbles on a page. 

By the time David storms off in frustration, he has left his mother standing in helpless confusion over the pot. Nobody has added the cheese to the sauce, and no one has learned what it means to "fold it in."  Moira only whimpers, "What does burning smell like?" before the scene cuts to black.  It's brilliant comedy, and it's also exactly the kind of thing James calls us out on in our spiritual lives as well.

James sees our trust in God in similar terms.  To trust God, James would have us believe, means more than reciting words off a page.  It means more than mentally affirming that God exists, because after all, even demons acknowledge the existence of God, James says--they are opposed to God, but they acknowledge God is real.  James insists that if all I have are words saying I believe in the fact that God exists, it's like having the written recipe with the words "fold in the cheese" clearly printed, but not knowing what kind of action those words call for.  

On the TV show, Moira reveals (in spite of her attempts to the contrary) that she doesn't really know what she is doing, and that she doesn't know what it means to "fold in the cheese." All she can do is to mouth the same words meaninglessly, showing by her futile repetition that she doesn't know what to do with those words.  James says the same about our professions of faith.  If all we can do is say, "I believe that God exists," but it doesn't affect how we live, act, and love neighbors, then it reveals we really don't know what it means to believe in God.  For James, faith is about trust, and trust is evident in the ways we live.  It's fine to have the words as a starting point--just like it can be helpful to have a written recipe when you are learning to cook something for the first time.  But owning a printed recipe and actually pulling a pan of enchiladas out of the oven are two separate things.  James doesn't want us to be satisfied with empty talk and the insecure need to pretend we understand theological jargon.  He wants us to be able to move beyond play-acting to a faith that is evident in the choices we make every day.  James is after the whole enchilada, so to speak.

To be honest, this is a word we need to hear especially in our day.  It is all too easy for us to mouth church slogans or show off symbols of "faith," but to be so out of step with the way of Jesus it's like we don't even know what it means to follow him.  It's easy in our time of cultural Christianity to call Jesus "Lord" and still dismiss the teachings of Jesus as though they are optional because we are worried it will make us look "weak" to love enemies, or we are convinced "it's just not realistic" to share our abundance with neighbors in need. It's easy to say we worship the Prince of Peace while still putting a stronger trust in weapons to keep us safe--but James sees through that fraudulent "faith." It's easy to have the Jesus-fish bumper sticker right beside the one with the crude vulgarity about the politician you don't like, but James says that only shows we don't really know what it means to follow Jesus. We can convince ourselves we are free to hate strangers, act selfishly, and hoard wealth as long as we know the right creed to say.  And James just won't have it.  All of that is just so much empty talk without really knowing what our words mean.

Today, then, James challenges us to look not only at our words, but at whether our choices, our actions, and our habits are in tune with the God we say we believe in.  And since we Christians are convinced that Jesus shows us the heart of God's character, James calls us to align our actions with the character of Jesus in particular.  Beyond empty talk, James says the evidence of our authentic faith will be clear without a word, because people will see a glimpse of Jesus in our lives, too.  The proof will be in the pudding, as they say.  Or in the enchilada sauce.

Lord God, let our trust in you be real and deep enough to be seen in our actions and our daily choices.